At number five, Levy mauled Tiger Ed Gentil in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3. "Jim has been playing great matches all year, so everyone expected it," assistant coach Dave Fish said yesterday. "He just took the guy apart."
The pivotal match came at number three, where Waldman took on cannonball server John Hayes. Waldman edged Hayes out in a first set tie-breaker before dropping the second set, 4-6.
Waldman barely managed to hold his serve in the first game of the final set, but then came on strong to win, 6-4. "It was nice to beat him in a situation where we knew we had to win four singles to have a good chance of winning the match," Waldman commented.
The match, then, boiled down to the doubles competition. If the Crimson could take one of the three doubles, it would be the owner of the biggest Eastern League upset in recent years.
The win came quickly. Playing at number three, seniors Levy and Reiner secured the first victory over Princeton in their college careers with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Hayes and Joe Krakora. Princeton romped in the two remaining doubles matches, but by then it was academic.
"That win was nice," Reiner said yesterday. "We were tired of hearing how great Princeton was." How exactly did Harvard manage to knock off the mighty Tigers? "We're a really together team and we have a lot of confidence in each other," asserted Reiner. "Most of us went out there and played the best we know how."
After the match, the mood among the team was one of enthusiasm and surprise. "It's like something you read in a storybook" Shaw commented a few hours after the victory. Then he paused, and grinning from ear-to-ear, added, "Yeah, but it's real."
******
With visions of the Eastern League crown dancing in their heads (Princeton and Harvard now have one loss each), the racquetmen took on a tough navy team at Framingham Reservoir Racquet Club Saturday night and just squeaked out a 5-4 win.
"We were lucky to beat them coming off Princeton," Fish said yesterday. "Navy was a tough team."
Lundy (6-2, 6-1), Waldman (6-3, 6-4) and Levy (6-2, 6-3) won their matches easily, as the two squads split the singles competition. Navy's Mark Jee downed Reiner in straight sets, and Midshipman Jim Brady edged Chaikovsky, 7-6, 6-4.
The closest singles match came at number four, where Shaw squared off with Mark Hoekstra. After Hoekstra edged him in the first set, 5-7, Shaw rebounded to take the second, 6-4.
The pair matched games in the final set, forcing a tie-breaker which Hoekstra escaped with, 5-4. "He was tough on the crucial points," Shaw commented.
The two squads split the first two doubles matches. At number one, Waldman and Cliff Adler dropped a second-set tie-breaker to lose the match, but Shaw and Lundy crushed Bob Detrich and Steve Merchant at number two, 6-2, 6-2.
"It's been a very exciting season, and this was a colossal weekend," Barnaby concluded.